Stanley Tucci thinks awards success is “absolutely crucial” for ‘Supernova’.

The 60-year-old actor stars opposite his friend Colin Firth in the film – in which the pair play lovers on a road trip trying to come to terms with Stanley’s character’s dementia diagnosis – and he admitted the exposure that awards season brings to nominated projects is vital for the movie.

Asked how important awards chatter is, he said: “It's absolutely crucial for a film like this. It really, really helps.

"Colin and I have talked about this for a while now. There aren't going to be a lot of movies made like this any more. They're really hard to make.

"They're hard to get the money for.

"And now, particularly with what's happening with Covid and people not able to go to cinemas, it's really really hard.

“And the more awards they garner, the more nominations they garner, the more people want to see them. It's just the way it works."

And Colin agreed that smaller movies that attract attention, and in turn viewers, are the ones that have been feted in some form.

He added in an interview with Total Film magazine: "Yeah, you notice every year that, rightly or wrongly, the small films that do make it into the conversation tend to me nominated films or films that have been garlanded at a festival or something.

"It'd be nice if there were many other ways for films to be talked about, but it is something.

"The awards, whatever anyone thinks about them, they do help small films to punch above their weight."